Dr Emily G. Mitchell

My research investigates the role of ecological processes on evolution through deep-time, from the first animal communities of the Ediacaran, to the present.

The first animal communities are found in the Ediacaran time period, 580 million years ago, which consisted of sessile benthic organisms that lived in the deep-sea. Therefore, to understand the drivers of early animal evolution, I study a wide range of different benthic communities from the fossil record and in modern systems such as tropical coral reefs and Antarctic communities. To collect fossil data in the field, I use novel field-based laser-scanning techniques to digitally capture entire rock surfaces. My work on modern systems uses data collected using scuba diving and AOV and ROVs to create 3D digital models.

My work is inherently interdisciplinary, utilising techniques from across evolutionary biology, mathematics and palaeontology to revolutionise our understanding of these early animals and modern benthic communities. I reconstruct how species interact with each other and their environment, and what the driving factors behind these interactions are. These results then feed into theoretical models to explore how these relationships influence macro-evolutionary patterns over the last 580 million years.

Research

Ecology and evolution of of early animals
Marine ecology through deep-time
Benthic ecology and ecosystem resilience
The evolution of life in the Universe

Publications

Key publications:

Stephenson, N.P., Delahooke, K.M., Kenchington, C.G., Waitaiti, J., Ball, A.A., Bonito, V.E., Manica, A. and Mitchell, E.G., 2025. Depth affects the population dynamics on a soft coral-dominated reef on the Great White Wall, Fiji. Coral Reefs, pp.1-14. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00338-025-02712-y

Khan, T.M., Griffiths, H.J., Stephenson, N.P., Whittle, R.J., Purser, A., Manica, A. and Mitchell, E.G., 2025. Competition drives the dispersal dynamics of two cup coral morphs in populations on the Powell Basin slopes, Weddell Sea, Antarctica. Scientific Reports, 15(1), p.18121. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-02

Mitchell, E.G. and Madhusudhan, N., 2025. Prospects for biological evolution on Hycean worlds. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, p.staf094. https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article/538/3/1653/7964882

Stephenson NP, Delahooke KM, Barnes N, Rideout BWT, Kenchington CG, Manica A, Mitchell EG. Morphology shapes community dynamics in early animal ecosystems Nature Ecology and Evolution 2024. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02422-8

Delahooke KM, Liu AG, Stephenson NP, Mitchell EG. ‘Conga lines’ of Ediacaran fronds: insights into the reproductive biology of early metazoans. Royal Society Open Society. 2024. pdf. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.231601

Eden R, Manica A, Mitchell EG. Metacommunity analyses show an increase in ecological specialisation throughout the Ediacaran period. PLoS Biology. 2022 May 17;20(5):e3001289. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001289

Mitchell, EG., Whittle RJ, and Griffiths HJ. 2020 Benthic ecosystem cascade effects in Antarctica using Bayesian network inference. Communications biology 3: 1-7. https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-020-01310-8

Mitchell EG, Bobkov N, Bykova N, Dhungana A, Kolesnikov AV, Hogarth IR, Liu AG, Mustill TM, Sozonov N, Rogov VI, Xiao S Grazhdankin DV. 2020 The influence of environmental setting on the community ecology of Ediacaran organisms. Interface Focus 10:4 https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsfs.2019.0109

Mitchell EG, Harris S, Kenchington CG, Vixseboxse P, Roberts L, Clark C, Dennis A, Liu AG, Wilby PR. 2019. The relative influence of niche versus neutral processes on Ediacaran organisms. Ecology Letters https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13383

Mitchell EG, and Kenchington, CG. 2018 The utility of height for Ediacaran organisms, Nature Ecology & Evolution, 2(8),1218-1222. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0591-6

Mitchell EG, Kenchington, CG, Liu, G, Matthews, JJ and Butterfield, NJ. 2015 Reconstructing the reproductive mode of an Ediacaran macro-organism. Nature (524) 343–346 https://www.nature.com/articles/nature14646

Assistant Professor

Curator of Invertebrates incorporating the Watson Curator of Malacology

Co-director of the Leverhulme Centre for Life in the Universe